Here Is the Tale of a Hollow Mermaid's Sorrow (Which She Put In a Bottle for Her Dead Lover to Read)

Broken glass is sharp. The worst is when it comes off in shards from the newest sunken ship. It breaks away and slowly sinks to the bottom of the ocean to become sea glass that might wash up on shore one day. And on that one day, the person who picks it up will never know that it was once stuck in my tail and led to the death of an already dying, love-struck man.

            The kelp forest was mine. At any point you swam into it, you’d find it empty with the exception of me and on one day, a ship.

            I heard the breaking of wood and the scream of men underneath the roar of Filius before the ship went down. The dark shadow blocking out the sun between the leaves was the start. Next came the breaking of the stems and the already ruined ship that crashed through half of my forest, the other half breaking off on the edge of the large rock marking the start of the open ocean. I floated at first, slowly moving into what used to be the middle of my forest. Now it appeared to be the end.

            Filius landed on the top of the ship, a sailor in his mouth. He stopped when he saw me. The half-eaten body fell onto the deck, beginning to float up to the surface.

            I hissed at him, baring all 200 teeth and extending my claws. Filius just stared. I hissed at him again, wishing for the scream of a siren. If I had had it, there wouldn’t have been any use for the tears in my eyes.

            Filius left without another attack on the dead ship. This had never been his forest; it had never been anything but where he was hatched. But was always mine and I was always there. How empty the world has to be to let me be the closest thing of a mother to a Kraken. How much crueler it has to be to tear you away, the love I raised him with.

            I swam up to where Filius had been, taking in the ruin of my forest. The ruin was all that I had left. A swirl of blue blood in the water passed in front of me. Slowly I looked down to find glass in my tail without a trace of pain. The blood was dripping in a steady stream, out into the water and forming a path. A strangled cry of distress escaped my mouth and I followed my blood, swimming down to the lowest part of the ship. I found a man.

            This man was living and from the blue patterns on his face, I knew it was only my blood keeping him alive. In seconds I was leaning over him. “What did you do to summon him?” I hissed.

            “What? I–I–I just want to go ashore.” He was frightened and the blue was ever so slowly fading from him. “Please,” he begged. “Please take me ashore to see her.” The look in his eyes was so intoxicated with love that the tears repressed.

            He was dying, but if I bled enough, he could stay alive. Yes, I could carry him up to get air and leave him to owe me a favor. But what good could a dead man who ruined my forest do?

            “Who?” My teeth were bared and ready to bite.

            “Elizabeth. Please.” My nails dug into his neck and that precious look of terror in his eyes seemed to freeze on his face.

            “Why did you summon him?”

            “I–I didn’t summon him. I was just singing, a love song to her.”

I let go of his neck, dragging my nails through the skin.

            The very beginning of my forest stared at me, reminding me of you. Reminding me of you and the dead man whom you helped, knowing that he would owe you. Reminding me that he knew you wouldn’t live to have him owe you. I looked down, ripping the shard of glass from my tail and stabbing it into his heart.

            My blood circled around us.

The kelp forest was mine. Before that, it was ours. Now my blood has settled a curse on the dead, love-struck man who reminded me too much of what we were and who has stolen what I had left.

            I stay trapped at the end of the forest to watch the kelp grow up over the ship and become all it was. But my forest is haunted and the only remnant to give what is mine back to me, is a feeling that can’t be found. I like to think that the forest isn’t lonely like it was for so many years and that love has sprung inside, keeping me out. I like to think that Elizabeth collected sea glass and one day found it, bringing herself back to the dying man on the ship. Yet, I know it’s my bitterness and my blood, leaving me harsh and alone and locked out of the only trace of life I have left.